My personal journey through healing from domestic violence and finding a better path for my sons.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

This blog has been in my head to start for a long time. While I enjoy sharing birthing information on facebook, I thought it would be nice to have all of the birthing information that I post available in one location.

A little about me:

I've been married to Hubby for 6.5 years. We have two sons, 5.5 and 1.5 (I'll refer to them as Five and One) and I'm 11 weeks pregnant with baby #3. We also have 5 children waiting for us in heaven.

I'm a birth doula. I was born at home, 2 weeks overdue and over 10 lbs. My mom said I was the perfect birth. (Of her 3 children's births, she's had an epidural and episiotomy, a completely natural homebirth, and a preemie born by cesarean.) I attended my first birth as a doula when I was 19 - my cousin Samantha's birth. I almost passed out and I don't think I was much help at all (sorry Aunt Sarah! :) ) I have attended 7 births over the past 7 years, not including my own kids' births, and have come a long way according to the feedback from my clients :)

I've always been interested in birth. My mom was a birth doula and attended many births of women in our church or social circle. I got to hear all about them when she got home. When I was pregnant with our first son, I picked up Dr. Bradley's book, "Husband-Coached Childbirth" and was hooked.

This book was much more visual than Dr. Bradley's book, which I found helpful. Most women these days are not exposed to childbirth like they used to be. It used to be that older girls would attend the births of their siblings, cousins, etc. and so childbirth was not a completely foreign experience to them. Nowadays, many women's first experience with childbirth is when their own child is born - or perhaps they've heard their friends' stories of childbirth, which can tend to be more fear-inducing than information-providing. This book actually has pictures. Pictures of birth. This was only the second time in my life that I had ever actually seen a baby be born (first was my cousin Samantha). It was shocking at first but as I read more and more, I became more fascinated than shocked. There is something powerful about witnessing something yourself. Others can tell you all your life that this is how babies are born, but until you actually witness it, you (well, at least I do) have doubts. Then you see it and it's like, "Wow! Babies actually really are born this way!"

Maybe this sounds dumb to you, but can we really act surprised that women do not have confidence in their body's ability to birth when they have never actually watched a fully natural, vaginal birth? When all they hear is horror stories from friends and all they see is "A Baby Story" which I've dubbed "A Cesarean Story" due to the highly disproportionate number of cesareans shown on that show (far more than 30% of the episodes that I've watched have been cesareans). When 1 in 3 births are done through major abdominal surgery? I've made a point of making sure that the vast majority of births that I view (in movies, on TV, and online) are natural birth. It's encouraging to me and reminds me that "this is how it's supposed to be!"

Dr. Bradley states that 3% of women will need to have cesareans and another 3% will need medical intervention in order to be able to birth vaginally. That leaves 94% that are perfectly capable of birthing all on their own! He has the stats to back it up. The Farm has similar statistics, as do some other countries with a less medically-minded birthing industry. Have you ever heard a doctor tell his/her client that they have a 94% of not needing the doctor at all during the birth? NO! They say 1 in 3 women end up with a cesarean so don't be too upset if that happens for you - all that matters is a healthy baby anyways. They say that most women end up with an epidural and there's no reason to suffer in this day and age of modern medicine. They say nothing (or say it really quickly, glossing over the facts) of the increase in risks to the mother and the baby. One doctor at a birth I attended told the parents "There are NO risks to epidurals." This was the head of obstetrics at that hospital! Scary stuff!

BIRTH DOES MATTER. It is one of the most important and memorable events in most people's lives. Ask a 90 year old women about the birth of her children and she will likely be able to recall many details about the birth, even what was said to her during her experience, and how she felt about how she was treated by her caregivers.

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36 weeks pregnant with #2

﻿﻿ I'll be posting soon about my children's births and what they mean to me - how they changed my view of childbirth and spurred my interest in being a doula. Stay tuned!

2 comments:

Wow, Anna. I didn't know pretty much any of this! What an amazing story of "Five", your early contractions and how he ended up full term...and of God's faithfulness. I didn't know you had 5 miscarriages. What a blessing for you to now be pregnant again. We pray that all will go smoothly for you during this pregnancy. Lots of love, Catherine